This present embodiments relate to color flow imaging. In particular, artifact suppression is provided for imaging tissue vascularity with color flow ultrasound imaging.
Color flow ultrasound imaging is commonly used to assess tissue vascularity. Doppler processing is used to estimate the velocities of blood in tissue. However, the Doppler signal is very sensitive to any types of motion and system noise or jitter, producing artifacts in the color flow image. Among these artifacts, twinkling artifacts (i.e., Christmas-like or phase noise) may result in misdiagnosis as the twinkling artifacts appear to be real, high or aliased flow. Twinkling artifacts are common and thought to be a result of surface roughness and system phase noise. Unlike normal blood flow, twinkling artifacts manifest as high velocity flow that is a function of anatomy and scan plane. Normally, gain or transmit power is adjusted to reduce the twinkling artifact. However, the change in gain or transmit power may result in a loss of sensitivity.